Charles/Doc wrote:

> My lord man!	You do great work but the once every month or so is
> killing
> me.  Thanks for sharing your work with us.  The pictures for the
> latest
> chapter are excellent.  Did you do these also?  Seems like the humans
> have
> been very fortunate on the ground so far. Did you play these scenarios
> out
> like the space battles or just script them?  Keep up the great work.

Howdy Chuk!
First off, thanks for the kind words. I wish I could get stuff out
quicker but it's a long process to put together each chapter, especially
when I have only the vaguest outline of what comes next in my mind,
though it falls into place as the days go by.

RE; The battles:
Most of the big engagements are gamed out between me and Kr'rt (he's on
the list also) who plays the Kra'Vak. I have a general idea of what I
want done and provide him with a scenario.  There is enough variablity
in the setups for him to throw surprises at me however. We then game out
the battles (we've had three so far). fortunately they have turned out
more or less with what I've had in mind with teh overall story so I
don'thave to change the much. The acutally ocurances in the battle
provide the fodder for me to write in the story.

I did game out the Loki pass battle using Dirstside but not the second
one. Time is an issue here. The dogfight with Major Burns was done on my
computer. I set up the original scenario mission using DID Total Air War
(An F22 simulator) which has a cheat in it that enables UFO of various
types. I flew the scenario a few times and even taped it onto my VCR (my
3d card has video out). SO from there, I had a story. As far as most of
teh SF and other ground "grunt" action, that comes from 20 years of real
military experience. (I've been in eth ARmy (active and national guard)
for going on 21 years, the first 6 as a paratrooper and the rest in
Special Forces, so I have a fair amount of anecdotal experiences to draw
upon whaile writing.

I hope to publish the thing when done, though if Jon doesn't give
permission I'll have to change a few things around (NSL etc). I've been
writing it because it really is total fun to do, plus it's my main
contribution to the guys on the list. The great feedback I've gotten
from people makes the late nights very much worth while. Thanks!!!

Los